Contemporary YA Literature: Love Letters to the Dead and Group Discussion

Hello, my dear readers!

The up and coming wave of YA lit is upon us, with many authors having break out years and coming onto the scene for the first time.  These contemporary novels are really exciting; it's fantastic to see the field expand into new territory!  Contemporary YA lit has so much to offer and so many ways it can go that the possibilities are endless.

For Contemporary YA lit, I chose to read Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira.  (You can check out her site here; on a side note, her layout online is really pretty.)  This is Dellaira's first novel and she was mentored by Stephen Chbosky, the author of Perks of Being a Wallflower.  The premise of Love Letters to the Dead is pretty straight forward.  A girl named Laurel is starting high school after the death of her sister and is assigned to write a letter to a dead person for a school activity.  She ends up writing a whole book of letters to a variety of dead people (Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix for example) and through the letters we learn of the events that lead up to her sister's death as well as the events going on now.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  On the one hand, I really like the concept of it.  Letters are a powerful way to explore a variety of topics that Laurel experienced, like abuse.  But on the other hand, I can tell this is Dellaira's first novel and that she's trying to find her writing voice.  That's not a bad thing, by the way; I love that this is her first novel and I hope she continues to write and develop her voice.  I just got distracted at times by the way her writing is at the moment.

In our group discussion, we talked about how Dellaira is finding her voice.  We also talked about how great the format is; depending on the person Laurel is writing to sets the tone of what we learn in that letter.  So for those who died by suicide (like Cobain), the letters tend to be angrier and deal with the gritty stuff whereas letters written to those who maybe didn't die like that (like Amelia Earhart) are more upbeat about things.  It's a really great technique that we hope Dellaira continues to use.

Honestly, I think Love Letters to the Dead is a pretty good book.  It takes a little bit to get used to the format, but it goes quick once you do.  I recommend it for freshmen and up.

~Meaghan